When in the market to purchase a new home, recent statistics say almost 80% of searchers turn to the all-knowing Internet to help them save time. I wanted to share a list of the 10 Top Real Estate search tools from a recent post on Lifehacker.com. Google is included in the list of course, but there were a couple of sites that I had never heard of including one site that helps you find used moving cartons.

Read the full list complete with links by clicking right here.

Realtors, would you like to make sure all your listings are distributed to these high traffic sites? Contact SpotLight Virtual Tours for help.

Brett

Lakeside Place Apartments in Starkville Mississippi serves the students attending Mississippi State University. With a resort style pool and activity center, not to mention the fitness center great floorplans, Lakeside Place is more than just a place to live, it’s a complete college experience.  It almost makes me want to go back to school. . .but not quite ;-).  The Lakeside Place staff plans activities regularly to build the community atmosphere.  See how Place Properties is leveraging the Internet marketing tools of Real Tour Vision by viewing the Lakeside Place virtual tour.  Enjoy!

If you’re looking for big value in a big home, you’ve found one to add to your short list. This three-story home in Coldwater Springs Estates subdivision has over 2700 square feet of efficient living space. Coldwater Springs Estates is in Summertown, TN and developed by Lawrence County TN Realtor David Gulley. Get the asking price and view this handsome home from the comfort of your home by viewing the virtual tour of 213 Sunshine Lane. It’s a 24-7 open house.

This home features a very efficient floor plan, which is something that Lawrence County TN Realtor and builder David Gulley is best known for.  With three bedrooms and three baths and almost 2200 square feet it has enough space for a growing family.  It’s located between Loretto and Lawrenceburg so it’s convenient to schools but tucked into a very quiet up and coming subdivision being developed by David Gulley.  Get all of the MLS information and asking price on the virtual tour of 121 Dave’O Lane.

Place Properties recently opened a new resort style property catering to students from the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Alabama A&M University, Oakwood University and Calhoun Community college. It’s called Huntsville Place Apartments.

Today’s students are very discriminating and tech savvy.  Place Properties knows this and that’s why they chose Real Tour Vision to provide prospective students with a twenty-four-seven open house via virtual tour.  See how Place Properties uses the virtual tour on their site.

I enjoyed meeting with the staff at Huntsville Place and touring the facility while shooting the virtual tour.  Check out the virtual tour of Huntsville Place now, especially if you are a student in the Huntsville, AL area.

Brett

Huntsville Alabama Virtual Tours

The Schankweiler’s - Tommy, Timmy, Sandee Jo, Tonie Jo and Tayler

It was very rewarding to see the looks on the family’s faces and the obvious appreciation that they had for all the hard work that was put in by project coordinator James Crocker, 100+ very talented volunteers and 40+ businesses who donated labor, materials or gave a steep discount on materials.

For the volunteers, lots of new friends were made and the experience was priceless.  I wound up on the four-member electrical crew headed up by Trevor Hamby of Hamby Construction and Electrical.  Also on the electrical crew was Richard McGill, who drove his RV 550 miles from Ohio just to help with this project.  Josh Ray was from much closer, only driving three miles each day to the project.  It was amazing to see how people from five states and on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line worked together.

The other big reward was seeing the results of the team’s labor.  The new kitchen and dining area is absolutely stunning as is the rest of the home.  The edits have been made to the virtual tour of the home.  I placed the before and after scenes consecutively where possible to help readers see the impact of the renovations.

The Tennesseean newspaper had a front page story featuring Project Fresh Start titled “Family’s tragic year turns hopeful“.  The newspaper also made a brief video of the Schankweiler homecoming.

Brett Weaver

SpotLight Virtual Tours

From the Lawrence County Advocate newspaper:

Tommy Schankweiler III shot and killed his father, Thomas Schankweiler Jr. March 21, after a typical day full of threats and abuse to Tommy, his three siblings, and their mother. The elder Schankweiler suffered from bipolar disorder, a mental illness that causes unpredictable and extreme mood swings.

The Tommy Schankweiler Jr. family has resided in Lawrenceburg, TN for roughly three years. Tommy and Sandee Jo, and their four children, “Bubba”, Timmy, Tonie Jo, and Tayler moved from Florida to this beautiful Tennessee community to slow down and raise a family.

James Crocker, president of Waterblasting Technologies, was a schoolmate of Mr. Schankweiler and after hearing about the tragedy he had an idea.  This quote is from the website dedicated to “Project Fresh Start”:

Their story is a long one and this website is likely not the best venue for discussing its’ details. However, with Tommy’s untimely passing, their family, friends, church and community are coming together to “plug in” and create a new set of surroundings and a “fresh start” by completely renovating their existing house. . .

. . .I fully believe that a complete overhaul of the house they are occupying would have an incredible long-term impact on this courageous family.

From what I can tell, Mr. Crocker has done an excellent job of organizing the local resources for this project. I felt that I needed to join the effort in some way so I volunteered to help with the remodeling and also to use a virtual tour to show the home before and after the remodeling.  A virtual tour is an excellent way to let those who have donated money to see what their generosity produced.

The Schankweiler project before virtual tour is complete.  Take a look at it here.  Then come back after the work is done to see how we did!  (See part 2 of this article here)The project will run from June 30, 2008 through July 5th 2008 when the Schankweilers will be presented with their newly remodeled home.

There is still time to make a much needed donation to Project Fresh Start.  Visit www.helpthisfamilynow.com and make a donation .

Brett Weaver

SpotLight Virtual Tours

Take the virtual tour of Lawrence County TN now! It’s easy to share whether you have a website or not. Simply point your browser to LawrenceCountyVirtualTour.com

Real estate agents: If you have listings in Lawrence County, this virtual tour is an easy way to give out of town-ers a scenic tour of the beauty of our area.

Business owners: If your business benefits from out of town visitors or tourism, then spread the word.

It’s very easy to view the tour: Simply visit http://www.lawrencecountyvirtualtour.com with your favorite browser.

We welcome ideas for additional scenes for the tour. If you have an idea, the easiest way to let us know is to leave a comment below.

Enjoy!

Brett Weaver

SpotLight Virtual Tours

There is no time like the present to start building your online presence and reputation. It is more expensive than ever for home seekers to drive around looking at properties. If it’s not on their commute, chances are the only way they will find the property is online, especially if they are moving outside the county they live in.

Contrarian thinker and marketer Seth Godin has stated that “The best time to plan for a sale in three years is right now.” For instance:

A hypothetical situation:

If I was a real estate agent and it’s oh say 2005, it would have been really easy to put off blogging and building my online presence because the market was up and maybe I wasn’t having to dig really deep to find buyers for the homes I had listed.

But let’s say I did start or continue my reputation building back then. By 2008 I’d have had about three years of content on my site(s). Even if I did get a disgruntled client. . .you can’t please everyone all the time. . .and they decided to post something nasty about me, there’s a whole lot of good stuff out there that would bury that one little blip in my record. Besides, as I said before, nobody wants to burn $3+ gas to ride around looking at houses. They’re at home on the internet looking for that perfect property. Good thing Google is full of search results pointing at me when buyers are searching my area!

Next steps to success:

As a real estate agent, the best place to start building your online presence is by creating an account on the Active Rain Real Estate Network. If you have doubts about the effectiveness of this strategy check out this post by an Active Rain blogger who got a lead AND closed a sale all due to his presence on Active Rain.

But when would I as a real estate agent have time for blogging and online reputation building you ask? Well, you could free up some time by leaving your property photography to your local full service virtual tour provider

BrettWeaver

SpotLight Virtual Tours

Based in Huntsville, Alabama, Country Cottage has nine locations in three states. When they wanted to let their visitors take a virtual visit, they called on SpotLight Virtual Tours. Country Cottage defines assisted living as “A … special combination of housing, supportive services, personalized assistance and healthcare designed to respond to the individual needs of those who need help with . . . daily living”.

This virtual tour represents Country Cottage’s Lawrenceburg TN assisted living facility as well as their Russellville Alabama and Corinth Mississippi locations.

Visit Country Cottage

Whether you’re a golfer or not you’re going to enjoy this virtual tour. . .but if you are a golfer and you’re in the market for a like-new home under $300K, then you will want to go ahead and give this Lawrence County TN realtor a call! Clax Brance Golf Course is one of the best kept secrets in Middle Tennessee. It’s quiet and picturesque with lots of undisturbed natural beauty, and this home at 173 Fairway Circle in Loretto, TN is nestled in on the back side of the course.

As you’ll see when you take the virtual tour, the covered back porch is accessible from both the master bedroom suite and the living room. With this setup, it’s golf course living at it’s finest.

I know you’re in a hurry so I’ll give you the links to the tours so you can decide for yourself which virtual tour technology you prefer, but do check out the original post.

See the Baker B Virtual Tour Powered by Real Tour Vision HERE

See the CirclePix Virtual Tour HERE

SpotLight Virtual Tours uses Real Tour Vision technology to provide you with the finest interactive virtual tours on the market. Let us put YOUR property in the SpotLight.

Brett Weaver
SpotLight Virtual Tours

How do large property management companies market smarter? They use Real Tour Vision virtual tour technology. Brookside Properties manages multi-family and commercial properties all over the Southeast United States. We recently photographed one of Brookside’s East Nashville Apartments. Creekstone Apartments is on Stewart’s Ferry Pike. See how the “Big Boys” used SpotLight Virtual Tours for their online marketing. Take the Tour.

Wellness Environments in Nashville, Tennessee provides hospital patient room components and furnishings for new construction, remodeling or major renovation. They allow customers to pick and choose from hundreds of room components: in–room Nurse Stations, Clinical Information Centers, furniture, artwork and acrylics — or buy complete patient rooms. Click here to see how Wellness Environments is using SpotLight Virtual Tour technology to SpotLight the Patient Room of the Future. View the Tour

Sevierville, Tennessee virtual tour. GREAT AREA! GREAT PRICE This 2 bedroom, 2 bath cottage has lots of extras! Vaulted Celings, French doors open out from master bedroom onto your own private porch, plus all appliances are included with the home. Comes with 10-year warranty! Listed by transplanted Lawrence County native Alicia Roy. Call Alicia today 865-804-4138. Brokered by COUNTRYSIDE REAL ESTATE
Office (865)428-3033. View the virtual tour

Lawrence County Tennessee is a great place to call home. SpotLight Virtual Tours is proud to showcase the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce. Travelers seeking an “off the beaten path” destination with fascinating glimpses of our nation’s heritage will find Lawrence County an ideal place to visit. David Crockett called Lawrence County home and a beautiful state park here bears his name. It’s a great place to work, live, raise a family, do business or just pay a visit. Contact the Chamber and let them help you plan a trip here - or perhaps a stay of a more permanent nature. Take the tour.

Here’s a Lawrence County gem tucked away at the intersection of US Hwy 43 and Rabbit Trail Road in Leoma. The property has a 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with a separate “Mother-In-Law” house that could be used for extended family, an office or recording studio or you name it! If you’re looking for a home with charm and close proximity to schools then check out the virtual tour.